Generating responses to electronic communications with a question answering system

ABSTRACT

Text is received from a first client. The text is associated with an electronic communication tool for communication to a second client. Candidate answers are generated based on the text using a question answering system. The question answering system generates the candidate answers based on a plurality of data sources, including at least one personalized data source and at least one informational data source. At least one of the candidate answers is provided to the second client. Each of the candidate answers provided to the second client is selectable.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to electronic communication, and morespecifically, to generating responses to electronic communications usinga question answering system.

Electronic communication tools enable real time non-verbal communicationbetween users. Electronic communication tools can come in many formsincluding instant messaging programs and social network messaging tools(wall posts, tags, mentions, direct messaging, etc.). Typically, userswill type a message into a text entry window and perform an action tocommunicate the message to another user (e.g. clicking a send button).The users receiving the message typically are unable to see the messageuntil the user performs the action to communicate the message.

SUMMARY

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a method forgenerating responses to an electronic communication is disclosed. Themethod includes receiving text from a first client. The text isassociated with an electronic communication tool for communication to asecond client. The method further includes generating candidate answersbased on the text using a question answering system. The questionanswering system generates the candidate answers based on a plurality ofdata sources, including at least one personalized data source and atleast one informational data source. The method further includesproviding at least one of the candidate answers to the second client.Each of the at least one candidate answers is selectable by the secondclient.

Further disclosed herein are embodiments of a computer program productfor generating responses to an electronic communication. The computerprogram product includes a computer readable storage medium havingprogram code embodied therewith. The program code is executable by acomputer to perform a method. The method includes receiving text from afirst client. The text is associated with an electronic communicationtool for communication to a second client. The method further includesgenerating candidate answers based on the text using a questionanswering system. The question answering system generates the candidateanswers based on a plurality of data sources, including at least onepersonalized data source and at least one informational data source. Themethod further includes providing at least one of the candidate answersto the second client. Each of the at least one candidate answers isselectable by the second client.

Further disclosed herein are embodiments of a system for generatingresponses to an electronic communication. The system includes one ormore processors, one or more computer-readable memories, one or morecomputer-readable tangible storage devices, and program instructionsstored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for executionby at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of theone or more memories. The program instructions include programinstructions to receive text from a first client. The text is associatedwith an electronic communication tool for communication to a secondclient. The program instructions further include program instructions togenerate candidate answers based on the text using a question answeringsystem. The question answering system generates the candidate answersbased on a plurality of data sources, including at least onepersonalized data source and at least one informational data source. Theprogram instructions further include program instructions to provide atleast one of the candidate answers to the second client. Each of the atleast one candidate answers is selectable by the second client.

The above summary is not intended to describe each illustratedembodiment or every implementation of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings included in the present application are incorporated into,and form part of, the specification. They illustrate embodiments of thepresent disclosure and, along with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the disclosure. The drawings are only illustrative ofcertain embodiments and do not limit the disclosure.

FIG. 1 depicts a diagrammatic illustration of an example computingenvironment, consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 depicts a system diagram of a high level logical architecture fora question answering system, consistent with embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of a question answering system togenerate answers to one or more input questions, consistent with variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of an example method for generatingresponses to electronic communications.

FIG. 5 depicts a flow diagram of an example method for generatinganswers to questions input into an electronic messaging tool.

While the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternativeforms, specifics thereof have been shown by way of example in thedrawings and will be described in detail. It should be understood,however, that the intention is not to limit the invention to theparticular embodiments described. On the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling withinthe spirit and scope of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to generating responses toelectronic communications using a question answering system, and otheraspects relate to generating answers to text input in an electroniccommunication tool. While the present disclosure is not necessarilylimited to such applications, various aspects of the disclosure may beappreciated through a discussion of various examples using this context.

Electronic messaging tools are helpful for enabling real time non-verbalcommunication between two or more parties. However, one drawback frommessaging tools is that they can hinder productivity when it comes tosending and receiving unnecessary messages. Unnecessary messages mayinclude messages which could have been easily answered by a computer.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may provide for generating answersto real time electronic messages in an electronic communication tool.The electronic communication tool may include an instant messaging tool,social network communication tool, or any other electronic communicationtool. Text entered by a first user into a text entry window of anelectronic communication tool for communication with a second user maybe input into a question answering system to generate candidate answers.The candidate answers may be provided to the second user for selectionto respond to the first user. The candidate answers may be displayedalongside the text entry window, or displayed in any other area on thesecond user's computer display. Confidence scores may also be calculatedfor each answer and provided to the user along with the generatedanswers.

The generated answers may be selectable by the second user such that thetext entry window is populated with a generated answer when it isselected. This may allow the second user to edit the generated answerbefore communicating it to the first user. In some embodiments, thegenerated answer may be immediately sent to the first user uponselection by the second user.

The question answering system may analyze the text input using naturallanguage processing techniques and generate queries to apply to multipledata sources to identify possible answers. The data sources may includepersonalized data for the second user and informational databases. Thepersonalized data may include electronic communication history acrossone or more electronic communication tools. For example, thepersonalized data may include history from one or more instant messagingtools and communication history from one or more social networks.Personalized data may also include personal profiles such as a socialnetwork profile. Personalized data may further include feedbackinformation collected from a user, such as whether a previous generatedanswer was good or not. The informational data sources may includetextbooks, manuals, FAQs, or any other sources which may be useful inanswering questions. The informational data sources may be locatedlocally on the second user's computing device or may be locatedremotely. The informational data sources may include data sources whichare access-restricted which the second user has access to.

Answers generated based on personalized data may be given higherconfidence scores than answers based on informational data sources. Forexample, an answer to a question may be found in an informational datasource and in a response to the same question in the chat history forthe user receiving the question. The answer determined through chathistory may be scored higher as the user has already previouslydetermined that this was the correct answer.

In some embodiments, the text entered into the text entry window may becommunicated to the question answering system as the first user isconstructing the message and before the first user submits theelectronic message. This may allow for answers to be generated prior tothe first user submitting the message and allow the answers to be shownas soon as the message is sent by the first user.

For example, first user may type a message into a text entry window ofan instant messaging application for communication to a second userwhich says “Do you know about System A?” Before the first user sends thequestion to the second user, the question may be input into a questionanswering system to generate candidate answers such as “Yes, how can Ihelp you?” along with confidence ratings. The question answering systemmay search electronic communication history for the second user and findthat the second user has discussed System A before. The questionanswering system may also find manuals for System A on the second user'scomputer which indicate that the second user may know about System A.

As the conversation continues, the questions may become narrower inscope and the question answering machine may be able to give morespecific answers. For example, the first user may ask “What does itcost?” The question answering system may take into account the previousquestions asked by the first user to determine that the first user wantsto know what the price is to buy System A and may search for the price.The question answering system may find product brochures regardingSystem A which have a price.

In some embodiments, the answers generated by the question answeringsystem may be provided to the first user, the sender of the question,instead of the second user. The first user may enter a question into atext entry window for communication to the second user, and the questionmay be input into the question answering system to generate candidateanswers to provide to the first user. The first user may receive thecandidate answers before communicating the question to a second user.This may allow the first user to avoid disturbing the second user byasking a question which can be answered by the question answeringsystem. For example, the first user may type “Do you have an ETA ondefect 12345?” The question answering system may have access to a defectrepository which says the problem is closed and may tell the first user“Are you sure you want to send this? It appears the problem is closed.”This may save the second user the time of looking up the answer andresponding to the first user.

In some embodiments, the first user may be blocked, at leasttemporarily, from communicating the question to the second user. Acommunication may be blocked if the question answering system generatesan answer with a confidence score higher than a specified value. Forexample, when the first user attempts to communicate the question to thesecond user the message may be blocked and the first user may beprovided with candidate answers and a dialog box which states “Are yousure you want to send this? Here are some candidate answers to yourquestion:” The first user may be allowed to continue with sending thecommunication or cancel the send. In some embodiments, the first usermay not be provided with the candidate answers until they attempt tocommunicate the question to the second user.

Turning now to the figures, FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of anexample computing environment, consistent with embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In certain embodiments, the environment 100 caninclude one or more remote devices 102, 112 and one or more host devices122. Remote devices 102, 112 and host device 122 may be distant fromeach other and communicate over a network through communication server150 which comprises a central hub through which remote devices 102, 112can communicate electronic messages. Alternatively, the communicationserver and remote devices may be configured in any other suitablerelationship (e.g., in a peer-to-peer or other relationship). Hostdevice 122 may be a part of communication server 150 or may be incommunication with communication server 150 over a network or otherconnection.

In certain embodiments the network 100 can be implemented by any numberof any suitable communications media (e.g., wide area network (WAN),local area network (LAN), Internet, Intranet, etc.). Alternatively,remote devices 102, 112 and host devices 122 may be local to each other,and communicate via communication server 150 through any appropriatelocal communication medium (e.g., local area network (LAN), hardwire,wireless link, Intranet, etc.). In certain embodiments, the network 100can be implemented within a cloud computing environment, or using one ormore cloud computing services. Consistent with various embodiments, acloud computing environment can include a network-based, distributeddata processing system that provides one or more cloud computingservices. In certain embodiments, a cloud computing environment caninclude many computers, hundreds or thousands of them, disposed withinone or more data centers and configured to share resources over thenetwork.

In certain embodiments, host device 122 can include a question answeringsystem 130 (also referred to herein as a QA system) having a searchapplication 134 and an answer module 132. In certain embodiments, thesearch application may be implemented by a conventional or other searchengine, and may be distributed across multiple computer systems. Thesearch application 134 can be configured to search one or more databasesor other computer systems for content that is related to a questioninput by a user at a remote device 102, 112.

In certain embodiments, remote devices 102, 112 may submit textcommunications to communication server 150 for communication to otherremote devices. These text communications may be submitted tocommunication server 150 as they are being constructed on remote devices102, 112. Communication server 150 may pass the text communications tohost device 122 to generate answers. For example, the remote devices102, 112 may include a communication tool 110, 120 (e.g., in the form ofa web browser or any other suitable software module) and present agraphical user (e.g., GUI, etc.) or other interface (e.g., command lineprompts, menu screens, etc.) for communication with other remotedevices, for submission to communication server 150, and further todisplay answers obtained from the host devices 122.

Consistent with various embodiments, host device 122 and remote devices102, 112 may be computer systems equipped with a display or monitor. Incertain embodiments, the computer systems may include at least oneprocessor 106, 116, 126 memories 108, 118, 128 and/or internal orexternal network interface or communications devices 104, 114, 124(e.g., modem, network cards, etc.), optional input devices (e.g., akeyboard, mouse, or other input device), and any commercially availableand custom software (e.g., browser software, communications software,server software, natural language processing software, search engineand/or web crawling software, filter modules for filtering content basedupon predefined criteria, etc.). In certain embodiments, the computersystems may include server, desktop, laptop, and hand-held devices. Inaddition, the answer module 132 may include one or more modules or unitsto perform the various functions of present disclosure embodimentsdescribed below (e.g., receiving an input question, determining a set ofanswer-types, prompting for clarifying data, determining a set ofcandidate answers, providing at least one candidate answer), and may beimplemented by any combination of any quantity of software and/orhardware modules or units.

FIG. 2 is a system diagram depicting a high level logical architecturefor a question answering system (also referred to herein as a QAsystem), consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure. Aspectsof FIG. 2 are directed toward components for use with a QA system. Incertain embodiments, the question analysis component 204 can receive anatural language question from a remote device 202, and can analyze thequestion to produce, minimally, the semantic type of the expectedanswer. The search component 206 can formulate queries from the outputof the question analysis component 204 and may consult various resourcessuch as the internet or one or more knowledge resources, e.g.,databases, corpora 208, to retrieve documents, passages, web-pages,database tuples, etc., that are relevant to answering the question. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 2, in certain embodiments, the searchcomponent 206 can consult a corpus of information 208 on a host device225. The candidate answer generation component 210 can then extract fromthe search results potential (candidate) answers to the question, whichcan then be scored and ranked by the answer selection component 212.

The various components of the exemplary high level logical architecturefor a QA system described above may be used to implement various aspectsof the present disclosure. For example, the question analysis component204 could, in certain embodiments, be used to analyze an input question.Further, the search component 206 can, in certain embodiments, be usedto perform a search of a corpus of information 208. The candidategeneration component 210 can be used to identify a set of candidateanswers based on clarifying data. Further, the answer selectioncomponent 212 can, in certain embodiments, be used to provide at leastone candidate answer of the set of candidate answers.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a question answering system (alsoreferred to herein as a QA system) to generate answers to one or moreinput questions, consistent with various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Aspects of FIG. 3 are directed toward an exemplary systemarchitecture 300 of a question answering system 312 to generate answersto input questions. In certain embodiments, one or more users may sendquestions to QA system 312 using a remote device (such as remote devices102, 112 of FIG. 1). QA system 312 can perform methods and techniquesfor responding to the requests sent by one or more client applications308. Client applications 308 may involve one or more entities operableto generate events dispatched to QA system 312 via network 315. Incertain embodiments, the events received at QA system 312 may correspondto input questions received from users, where the input questions may beexpressed in a free form and in natural language.

A question (similarly referred to herein as a query) may be one or morewords that form a search term or request for data, information orknowledge. A question may be expressed in the form of one or morekeywords. Questions may include various selection criteria and searchterms. A question may be composed of complex linguistic features, notonly keywords. However, keyword-based search for answer is alsopossible. In certain embodiments, using unrestricted syntax forquestions posed by users is enabled. The use of restricted syntaxresults in a variety of alternative expressions for users to betterstate their needs.

Consistent with various embodiments, client applications 308 can includeone or more components such as a communication tool 302 and a mobileclient 310. Client applications 308 can operate on a variety of devices.Such devices include, but are not limited to, mobile and handhelddevices, such as laptops, mobile phones, personal or enterprise digitalassistants, and the like; personal computers, servers, or other computersystems that access the services and functionality provided by QA system312. For example, mobile client 310 may be an application, installed ona mobile or other handheld device. In certain embodiments, mobile client310 may dispatch query requests to QA system 312.

Consistent with various embodiments, communication tool 302 cancommunicate questions from a first user to a second user and candispatch requests for information to QA system 312. In certainembodiments, communication tool 302 can be a client application to QAsystem 312. In certain embodiments, communication tool 302 can sendrequests for answers to QA system 312. Communication tool 302 may beinstalled on a personal computer, a server or other computer system. Incertain embodiments, communication tool 302 can include a graphical userinterface (GUI) 304 and session manager 306. Users may enter questionsin GUI 304. In certain embodiments, GUI 304 may include a text entrywindow or other GUI component, the content of which represents aquestion to be submitted to another user and to QA system 312. Users mayauthenticate to QA system 312 via session manager 306. In certainembodiments, session manager 306 keeps track of user activity acrosssessions of interaction with the QA system 312. Session manager 306 maykeep track of what questions are submitted within the lifecycle of asession of a user. For example, session manager 306 may retain asuccession of questions posed by a user during a session. In certainembodiments, answers produced by QA system 312 in response to questionsposed throughout the course of a user session may also be retained.Information for sessions managed by session manager 306 may be sharedbetween computer systems and devices.

In certain embodiments, client applications 308 and QA system 312 can becommunicatively coupled through network 315, e.g. the Internet,intranet, or other public or private computer network. In certainembodiments, QA system 312 and client applications 308 may communicateby using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Representational StateTransfer (REST) calls. In certain embodiments, QA system 312 may resideon a server node. Client applications 308 may establish server-clientcommunication with QA system 312 or vice versa. In certain embodiments,the network 315 can be implemented within a cloud computing environment,or using one or more cloud computing services. Consistent with variousembodiments, a cloud computing environment can include a network-based,distributed data processing system that provides one or more cloudcomputing services.

Consistent with various embodiments, QA system 312 may respond to therequests for information sent by client applications 308, e.g., posedquestions by users. QA system 312 can generate answers to the receivedquestions. In certain embodiments, QA system 312 may include a questionanalyzer 314, data sources 324, and answer generator 328. Questionanalyzer 314 can be a computer module that analyzes the receivedquestions. In certain embodiments, question analyzer 314 can performvarious methods and techniques for analyzing the questions syntacticallyand semantically. In certain embodiments, question analyzer 314 canparse received questions. Question analyzer 314 may include variousmodules to perform analyses of received questions. For example, computermodules that question analyzer 314 may encompass include, but are notlimited to a tokenizer 316, part-of-speech (POS) tagger 318, semanticrelationship identification 320, and syntactic relationshipidentification 322.

Consistent with various embodiments, tokenizer 316 may be a computermodule that performs lexical analysis. Tokenizer 316 can convert asequence of characters into a sequence of tokens. Tokens may be stringof characters typed by a user and categorized as a meaningful symbol.Further, in certain embodiments, tokenizer 316 can identify wordboundaries in an input question and break the question or any text intoits component parts such as words, multiword tokens, numbers, andpunctuation marks. In certain embodiments, tokenizer 316 can receive astring of characters, identify the lexemes in the string, and categorizethem into tokens.

Consistent with various embodiments, POS tagger 318 can be a computermodule that marks up a word in a text to correspond to a particular partof speech. POS tagger 318 can read a question or other text in naturallanguage and assign a part of speech to each word or other token. POStagger 318 can determine the part of speech to which a word correspondsbased on the definition of the word and the context of the word. Thecontext of a word may be based on its relationship with adjacent andrelated words in a phrase, sentence, question, or paragraph. In certainembodiments, context of a word may be dependent on one or morepreviously posed questions. Examples of parts of speech that may beassigned to words include, but are not limited to, nouns, verbs,adjectives, adverbs, and the like. Examples of other part of speechcategories that POS tagger 318 may assign include, but are not limitedto, comparative or superlative adverbs, wh-adverbs, conjunctions,determiners, negative particles, possessive markers, prepositions,wh-pronouns, and the like. In certain embodiments, POS tagger 316 cantag or otherwise annotates tokens of a question with part of speechcategories. In certain embodiments, POS tagger 316 can tag tokens orwords of a question to be parsed by QA system 312.

Consistent with various embodiments, semantic relationshipidentification 320 may be a computer module that can identify semanticrelationships of recognized entities in questions posed by users. Incertain embodiments, semantic relationship identification 320 maydetermine functional dependencies between entities, the dimensionassociated to a member, and other semantic relationships.

Consistent with various embodiments, syntactic relationshipidentification 322 may be a computer module that can identify syntacticrelationships in a question composed of tokens posed by users to QAsystem 312. Syntactic relationship identification 322 can determine thegrammatical structure of sentences, for example, which groups of wordsare associated as “phrases” and which word is the subject or object of averb. In certain embodiments, syntactic relationship identification 322can conform to a formal grammar.

In certain embodiments, question analyzer 314 may be a computer modulethat can parse a received query and generate a corresponding datastructure of the query. For example, in response to receiving a questionat QA system 312, question analyzer 314 can output the parsed questionas a data structure. In certain embodiments, the parsed question may berepresented in the form of a parse tree or other graph structure. Togenerate the parsed question, question analyzer 314 may trigger computermodules 316-322. Question analyzer 314 can use functionality provided bycomputer modules 316-322 individually or in combination. Additionally,in certain embodiments, question analyzer 314 may use external computersystems for dedicated tasks that are part of the question parsingprocess.

Consistent with various embodiments, the output of question analyzer 314can be used by QA system 312 to perform a search of one or more datasources 324 to retrieve information to answer a question posed by auser. In certain embodiments, data sources 324 may include datawarehouses, information corpora, data models, and document repositories.In certain embodiments, the data source 324 may include an informationcorpus 326. The information corpus 326 can enable data storage andretrieval. In certain embodiments, the information corpus 326 may be astorage mechanism that houses a standardized, consistent, clean andintegrated form of data. The data may be sourced from variousoperational systems. Data stored in the information corpus 326 may bestructured in a way to specifically address reporting and analyticrequirements. In some embodiments, the information corpus may be arelational database. In some example embodiments, data sources 324 mayinclude one or more document repositories. In certain embodiments, datasources 324 may include personalized data 327. Personalized data 327 mayinclude data about specific users such as electronic message history anduser profiles. Answers based on information retrieved from personalizeddata 327 may be scored more highly than answers based on informationfrom information corpus 326.

In certain embodiments, answer generator 328 may be a computer modulethat generates answers to posed questions. Examples of answers generatedby answer generator 328 may include, but are not limited to, answers inthe form of natural language sentences; reports, charts, or otheranalytic representation; raw data; web pages, and the like.

Consistent with various embodiments, answer generator 328 may includequery processor 330, visualization processor 332 and feedback handler334. When information in a data source 324 matching a parsed question islocated, a technical query associated with the pattern can be executedby query processor 330. Based on retrieved data by a technical queryexecuted by query processor 330, visualization processor 332 can rendervisualization of the retrieved data, where the visualization representsthe answer. In certain embodiments, visualization processor 332 mayrender various analytics to represent the answer including, but notlimited to, images, charts, tables, dashboards, maps, and the like. Incertain embodiments, visualization processor 332 can present the answerto the user in understandable form.

In certain embodiments, feedback handler 334 can be a computer modulethat processes feedback from users on answers generated by answergenerator 328. In certain embodiments, users may be engaged in dialogwith the QA system 312 to evaluate the relevance of received answers.Answer generator 328 may produce a list of answers corresponding to aquestion submitted by a user. The user may rank each answer according toits relevance to the question. In certain embodiments, the feedback ofusers on generated answers may be used for future question answeringsessions.

The various components of the exemplary question answering systemdescribed above may be used to implement various aspects of the presentdisclosure. For example, the client application 308 could be used toreceive an input question from a user. The question analyzer 314 could,in certain embodiments, be used to analyze the input question todetermine characteristic(s) about a set of answer types. Further, thequery processor 330 or the answer generator 328 could, in certainembodiments, be used to determine a set of candidate answers.

Referring to FIG. 4, a flow diagram of an example method for generatingresponses to electronic messages is depicted. At block 410, text may bereceived from a first client which is for communication to a secondclient. The text may be received by a communication server fortransmitting electronic communications between clients. The text may beinput into a text entry window of an electronic communication tool suchas an instant messaging program or a social network messaging tool. Thetext may be received prior to the first client communicating the text tothe second client.

At block 420, the text is sent to a question answering system. In someembodiments, the text entered into the electronic communication tool maybe sent to the question answering system as it is entered into the firstclient and before it is communicated to the second client. In someembodiments, the text may be sent to the question answering system inresponse to the first client communicating the text to the secondclient.

At block 430, candidate answers may be generated by the questionanswering system. The question answering system may perform naturallanguage processing to the text to extract features from the text. Thesefeatures may be used to generate queries which may be applied to severaldata sources, including sources with unstructured information, togenerate candidate answers. The data sources may include personalizeddata sources for a user associated with the second client, such aselectronic communication history, and other informational sources. Someof the data sources may be access restricted databases which areaccessible by the user associated with the second client.

At block 440, confidence scores may be calculated for the candidateanswers. The confidence scores may be calculated using any number ofdifferent algorithms. Calculating the confidence scores may includeperforming searches to obtain evidence for the candidate answers.Candidate answers generated based on personalized data sources may bescored more highly than candidate answers generated based on otherinformational sources.

At block 450, at least one of the candidate answers may be provided tothe second client. The candidate answers may be selectable at the secondclient. If the candidate answers are generated prior to communication ofthe text to the second client, providing the candidate answers to thesecond client may be performed in response to the text beingcommunicated to the second client. The candidate answers provided to thesecond client may be selected based on their respective confidencescores. For example, the candidate answers with a confidence score abovea specified value may be provided to the second client. The confidencescores may also be provided to the second client along with thecandidate answers.

At block 460, a candidate answer selection may be received from thesecond client. In some embodiments, the selected answer may becommunicated to the first client in response to the selection. In someembodiments, a text entry window associated with the electroniccommunication tool is populated with the selected answer. This may allowthe second client to edit the answer before communicating the answer tothe first client.

In some embodiments, a candidate answer may be communicated to the firstclient without being selected by the second client. For example, thecandidate answer with the highest confidence score may be communicatedto the first client if the user associated with the second client isunavailable. For example, the candidate answer with the highestconfidence score may be communicated to the first client in response toa specified period of time elapsing after the second client received thecommunication from the first client. In another example, the candidateanswer with the highest confidence score may be communicated to thefirst client if there are a specified number of active communicationwindows open in the communication tool of the second client.

Referring to FIG. 5, a flow diagram of an example method for generatinganswers to questions input into an electronic messaging tool isdepicted. At block 510, text may be received from a first user which isfor communication to a second user. The text may be input into anelectronic communication tool such as an instant messaging program or asocial network messaging tool. The text may be input into a text entrywindow or input using any other method of text entry.

At block 520, the text may be sent to a question answering system. Insome embodiments, the text entered into the electronic communicationtool may be sent to the question answering system as it is entered bythe first user and before it is communicated to the second user. Thetext may be sent to the question answering system through acommunication server associated with the electronic communication tool.

At block 530, candidate answers may be generated by the questionanswering system. The question answering system may perform naturallanguage processing to the text to extract features from the text. Thesefeatures may be used to generate queries which may be applied to severaldata sources, including sources with unstructured information, togenerate candidate answers. Some of the data sources may be accessrestricted databases which are accessible by the first user.

At block 540, confidence scores may be calculated for the candidateanswers. The confidence scores may be calculated using any number ofdifferent algorithms. Calculating the confidence scores may includeperforming searches to obtain evidence for the candidate answers.

At block 550, at least one of the candidate answers may be provided tothe first user. The candidate answers provided to the first user may beselected based on their respective confidence scores. For example, thegenerated candidate answers with a confidence score above a specifiedvalue may be provided to the first user. The confidence scores may alsobe provided to the first user along with the candidate answers. In someembodiments, candidate answers may only be provided to the first user ifat least one of the confidence scores exceeds a specified value.

At block 560, a communication attempt by the first user may be blocked.The communication attempt may be blocked if there is a candidate answerwith a high confidence score. The first user may be provided with textnotifying the first user of the candidate answer and asking if theywould like to send the communication regardless. For example, the firstuser may click the send button on the communication tool to send thetext to the second user. The first user may be blocked from sending thecommunication and may be provided with a popup which states “Are yousure you want to send this message? Here is a candidate answer to yourquestion:” along with the candidate answer. The first user may also beprovided with a selectable icon which allows the first user to continuewith the communication to the second user.

In some embodiments, a blocked communication attempt by the first usermay be provided to the second user in a way which does not interrupt thesecond user. For example, chat history for the second user may beupdated to include the text from the first user and the answers providedto the first user.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present disclosurehave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for generating responses to anelectronic communication, the method comprising: receiving text from afirst client, the text associated with an electronic communication toolfor communication to a second client; generating candidate answers basedon the text using a question answering system, the question answeringsystem generating the candidate answers based on a plurality of datasources comprising at least one personalized data source and at leastone informational data source; and providing at least one of thecandidate answers to the second client, each of the at least onecandidate answers selectable by the second client.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving a selected answer from the secondclient, the selected answer from the at least one candidate answers; andcommunicating the selected answer to the first client.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the text is received prior to the first clientcommunicating the text to the second client.
 4. The method of claim 1,further comprising: calculating confidence scores for the candidateanswers; and selecting the at least one candidate answers, from thegenerated candidate answers, based on the confidence scores.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the calculated confidence scores are higherfor candidate answers generated based on the at least one personalizeddata source.
 6. The method of claim 4, further comprising: providing, tothe second client, respective confidence scores for the at least onecandidate answers.
 7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:identifying a highest confidence score from the confidence scores; andcommunicating a candidate answer associated with the highest confidencescore to the first client in response to a specified period of timeelapsing after communication of the text to the second client.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data sources comprises anaccess-restricted data source, the access-restricted data sourceaccessible by the second client.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein theelectronic communication tool is an instant messaging program.